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Alaska wildlife managers say they need help: A growing number of black bears are roaming the state, chowing down on too many caribou and moose and leaving too few for humans to eat.

So the state is poised for the first time to legalize the trapping of black bears.
Critics call the plan cruel: Bears are lured with buckets of raw meat and their paws are snared when they reach inside. Sometimes, bears end up chewing off a foot to get free.

"What is going to happen when the world looks at the barbaric management techniques that the state of Alaska has regressed to? We don't need that," said Wade Willis, an ex-wildlife worker-turned-agency watchdog.

Under the proposed regulations, any black bear, including sows and cubs, could be legally trapped.

Maine allows bear trapping (or rather, foot snaring, the only state to allow it). Canada also allows it. They don't chew their legs off, and the foot snares used are quite humane. They're not using the big old bear traps (which themselves were more dangerous to humans in remote places than inhumane to the bears).

bears might be hard to hunt in the northeast, but they are much more numerous in most parts of alaska. i would also rather see an expanded hunting season instead of trapping- at least then the hunters could make sure to spare cubs, not split up families, focus on non-dominant males, etc.
i'd rather see neither, but one seems much more sensible to me, especially if a trapped bear ends up going to waste...

We sure are. You don't see bears figuring out how to snare humans, do you?

If this does work and doesn't catch much in the way of non-target species, I don't have a problem with it. I might like to see a requirement for checking the traps more often than every few days, though. A couple of points made in the article seem like non-sequiturs to me. One, about taking sows, seems to miss the point that if you're trying to reduce population numbers you'd want to kill sows. And the comments about people being endangered by the traps seem overblown if trapping is only going to be allowed near remote villages. They're not talking about bear trapping in Anchorage, from what it sounds like.

We sure are. You don't see bears figuring out how to snare humans, do you?

If this does work and doesn't catch much in the way of non-target species, I don't have a problem with it. I might like to see a requirement for checking the traps more often than every few days, though. A couple of points made in the article seem like non-sequiturs to me. One, about taking sows, seems to miss the point that if you're trying to reduce population numbers you'd want to kill sows. And the comments about people being endangered by the traps seem overblown if trapping is only going to be allowed near remote villages. They're not talking about bear trapping in Anchorage, from what it sounds like.

That struck me too. Reminds me of how here, the deer population was way overpopulated decades ago, but none of the control measures allowed taking does...and as a result it crashed (mass starvation during a harsh winter) despite all efforts to control it first...

And these snares pose next to no danger to a human. Anyone with a brain could figure out how to get out of one (bears can't figure it out). Anyone carrying normal, basic gear in the wilderness would easily get out of one no matter what (think axe or such...). The big old bear traps, which took clamps to compress the springs to even set them, and usually had teeth, would be dangerous to humans, people who accidentally got caught in those literally got legs broken or got stranded and froze/starved in the past, but these modern foot snares are nothing like that.

I would prefer a law allowing us to use snares to catch politicians when they stick their hand in the cookie jar. It would be fun to watch them chew their arm off!

or at least a couple politician hunting days....each resident gets 6 shots, days drawn by lottery!!

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